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Catherine Hilker established Creating Sanctuary in 2002 and serves clients in the Detroit area and elsewhere in the United States. As a feng shui expert, life coach, artist & business woman, Catherine is well positioned to assist you to be your best.

One of the three tenets of Feng Shui, everything is alive, is being illuminated by Marie Kondo’s books and Netflix series called “Tidying Up.” At first, without knowing much about Marie, I wondered if she was on the OCD spectrum due to what appeared to be her extreme neatness. I had briefly seen her on shows like Ellen where the focus of her work was how she folded clothes. As a guest on talk shows, one only has a few minutes to demonstrate their work and unfortunately, this gave me an incomplete impression of Marie. It wasn’t until I watched her Netflix series that I saw her working on a much deeper level.

For those of you who’ve seen her show, you’ll know she works with a very diverse client base. That impressed me! Before she starts working with a client, she gets down on the floor and connects with the space in “prayer.” Next, she’ll gently point out how much stuff we all have by having her clients pile all their clothes on a bed. That is eye opening! The newer American homes have so much potential for storage, we lose site of how much we really have. Then comes the sorting process of what to keep. She asks her clients to thank each piece of clothing that will not stay. The clothes that are staying are then stored or folded very neatly.

Her approach isn’t necessarily about getting rid of stuff. It’s about honoring what we have and treating what we have with respect. In other words, she is teaching us to appreciate the aliveness of everything, even inanimate objects like clothes and our personal possessions.

So, the next time you throw something on the floor, cram something into a drawer, never use something, or stuff things into cupboards, consider this: It is Alive!!!